Here are some sales figures on recent ongoing Marvel series that were critically well-received but quickly canceled due to lackluster sales. One from 2006-2007, one from 2007-08, and one from 2008-2009.
NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF H.A.T.E.
#1 - 41,041
#2 - 29,911
#3 - 27,126
#4 - 26,728
#5 - 30,818
#6 - 24,626
#7 - 24,245
#8 - 23,059
#9 - 22,357
#10 - 21,644
#11 - 22,259
#12 - 21,574
THE ORDER
#1 - 57,264
#2 - 40,274
#3 - 33,936
#4 - 29,746
#5 - 26,311
#6 - 24,446
#7 - 21,539
#8 - 19,194
#9 - 18,317
#10 - 17,301
CAPTAIN BRITAIN & MI-13
#1 - 43,281
#2 - 37,986
#3 - 39,100
#4 - 36,826
#5 - 32,999
#6 - 28,033
#7 - 22,189
#8 - 21,236
#9 - 18,483
#10 - 20,627
#11 - 17,757
#12 - 19,992
#13 - 17,947
Anyone want to guess what series will be 2009-2010's version?
Hint:
AGENTS OF ATLAS
#1 - 34,449
#2 - 26,783
#3 - 29,748
#4 - 25,377
#5 - 25,207
(Sales figures taken from Paul O'Brien's posts on The Beat. David Uzumeri also came up with Agents of Atlas when I posted this question on Twitter. I should note that Matt Fraction has stated that The Order only was canceled because he wanted to move on to other projects.)
That’s a wrap.
10 years ago
The same happened to Flash sales over at DC...both with The Fastest Man Alive AND the Wally West series. It is really sad to see good series go over cost, but that's the way the business works, I guess.
ReplyDeletewithout looking at sales figures I'm going to nominate Nova. It's a great read, but come on its Nova. I can't believe it hasn't been canceled already.
ReplyDeleteAnd when this does happen, we will see the typical depressing-to-behold response:
ReplyDeleteFanboy: "Curse you Marvel! How could you let this happen?!"
Non-Fanboy: "Nobody bought the comic?"
Fanboy: "It's Joe Quesada's fault!"